Summer at the Maggio: "Il barbiere di Siviglia" at the Cavea
In Cavea, the large and evocative outdoor space on the rooftop of the Teatro del Maggio, “Il barbiere di Siviglia” by Gioachino Rossini, Thursday 18 July 2024 at 9pm.
Repeats in program July 20, 22 and 24 at 9pm
On the podium the maestro Riccardo Bisatti, stage direction by Damiano Michieletto, revival director is Andrea Bernard.
Event included in the “Estate Fiorentina 2024” program
The Teatro del Maggio thanks Sammontana for the ice creams offered to the public
Florence, Jul 15th 2024 – Almost two years after the last shows, one of the most beloved masterpieces by Gioachino Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia, returns to Maggio.
The show, with its well-known staging and direction by Damiano Michieletto (here taken by Andrea Bernard), is presented in the splendid Cavea del Maggio (our rooftop) which is therefore once again reopening to the public and hosting for the first time an opera in scenic. Including the first, there are four appointments: July 18, 20, 22 and 24, all shows at 9pm.
On the podium, leading the Orchestra and Coro del Maggio, maestro Riccardo Bisatti, a young talent and one of the most interesting conducting discoveries of recent years who had already conducted the Orchestra del Maggio in a concert for families and more recently he was the protagonist with the Orchestra della Toscana of a concert as part of the last Maggio Fiorentino Festival. The direction is taken up by Andrea Bernard - very recent winner of the prestigious 2023 Abbiati Prize - who had already restaged it in Sala Mehta in September 2022 and it is signed by Damiano Michieletto. This "Barbiere" reaches its tenth staging during the Maggio seasons since its debut, which took place almost twenty years ago at the Roman Theater of Fiesole in July 2005. It is a show originally conceived for an open space, and ideal to be reconstructed in the suggestive - and always cool in the evening - Cavea del Maggio which hosts for the first time an opera in stage form on a stage and an orchestra pit built for this purpose. For the occasion, the brand new and welcoming bar located at the entrance to the Cavea will also be open and, thanks to Sammontana, ice creams will be offered to all the public, both at the premiere and at the repeat performances.
The cast is made up of Dave Monaco, returning to the Maggio after the concert on March 29th, in the role of the Count of Almaviva, in love with the beautiful Rosina, played by Laura Verrecchia who returns to the Theatre stage after the Madama Butterfly in December 2021. The factotum of the story, Figaro, is instead played by Hae Kang; Don Bartolo is played by Matteo D'Apolito while Rosina's keeper, Don Basilio, is voiced by Bozhidar Bozhkilov.
Closing the singing company are two talents from the Accademia del Maggio: Yurii Strakhov in the double role of Fiorello/An officer and Letizia Bertoldi as Berta. In this production the costumes are by Carla Teti while the lights are designed by Andrea Locorotondo. The master of the Coro del Maggio is Lorenzo Fratini.
A sparkling Barbiere – always well received by the public and critics – which begins as a train journey, announced by the loudspeaker: a cheerful way of traveling "through" Rossini's work, recalling the places and situations with the imagination. Evocative and bizarre costumes and bright colors make the characters caricatures, almost as if they were characters linked to the Commedia dell'Arte: Don Basilio is very green with long, greasy hair, a hooked nose, all green with envy like a snake (or rather, a basilisk ); Figaro has hair that hints at fox ears and a moustache, while Don Bartolo, all in white, resembles a pot-bellied bulldog who looks jealously at Rosina, dressed in red like her lover Lindoro. The absence of actual scenes focuses all the attention on the comic gags and careful gestures, but above all on the voice and music, the undisputed queens of Rossini's opera. This absence also helps to underline even the more cynical sides of this funny drama, of which the joking and playful side still emerges: the gimmicks on the stage follow each other with naturalness and growing inventiveness, so as to never leave a static moment in the theatrical game.